Vlll 
Preface. 
lower Congo River, from the mouth to the Yellala 
or main rapids, the gate by which the mighty 
stream, emerging from the plateau of Inner Africa, 
goes to its long home, the Atlantic. Some time 
must elapse before the second expedition, which left 
Ambriz early in 1873, under Lieutenant Grandy, 
R. N., can submit its labours to the public : mean¬ 
while these pages will, I trust, form a suitable in¬ 
troduction to the gallant explorers travel in the 
interior. It would be preposterous to publish de¬ 
scriptions of any European country from informa¬ 
tion gathered ten years ago. But Africa moves 
slowly, and thus we see that the results of an 
Abyssinian journey (M. Antoine d’Abbadie’s 
“ Geodesie d’Ethiopie,” which took place about 
1845, are not considered obsolete in 1873. 
After a languid conviction during the last half 
century of owning some ground upon the West 
Coast of Africa, England has been rudely aroused 
by a little war which will have large consequences. 
The causes that led to the “ Ashantee Campaign,” 
a negro copy of the negroid Abyssinian, may 
be broadly laid down as general incuriousness, 
local mismanagement, and the operation of un¬ 
principled journalism. 
It is not a little amusing to hear the complaints 
of the public that plain truth about the African 
has not been told. I could cite more than one 
name that has done so. But what was the result •? 
